Athletics News

Notes On A ScorecardTCU director of intercollegiate athletics Chris Del Conte discusses the hot topics around the Horned Frogs

Chris Del Conte

June 6, 2012

REGIONAL CHAMPS

Congratulations to head coach Jim Schlossnagle and our baseball program on a memorable weekend in College Station that made the entire TCU nation proud. It’s a great testament to the resiliency of the Horned Frogs to win a regional on the road after dropping the first game. To eliminate Texas A&M on its home field and then beat Ole Miss on back-to-back nights says a lot about the caliber and character of our student-athletes.

GREAT SUPPORT

A special tip of the cap to all of you who made the trek to Texas A&M over the four days of baseball, especially the great crowd Monday night. It was special to hear the “TCU” chants resonating throughout the ballpark. You truly made a difference for our guys on the field. They fed off your energy. As a side note, it was rewarding to receive compliments on our fans from several employees at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park in College Station. You made an impression on folks with your friendliness and great support of the Horned Frogs. Thanks for representing us with class!

L.A. BOUND

Did you know behind the great state of Texas, we receive the second-most students from California? If you’re a current student from the Golden State home for the summer or an alum in the SoCal area, please make a point to support our baseball program as it faces UCLA this weekend at Jackie Robinson Stadium in Los Angeles. First pitch is 8 p.m. CDT for games Friday (ESPN) and Saturday (ESPN2). If necessary, a Sunday contest (ESPN2) would be at 9 p.m. CDT. This is a best-of-3 series for the right to go to Omaha and the College World Series. Through 5 p.m. today, we do have a limited number of tickets available through TCU. Please contact our athletics ticket office at (817) 257-FROG (3764) or drop by the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum. You can also purchase tickets through UCLA at the following LINK or by calling (310) 825-2946.

Please make sure to drop by our athletics ticket office in the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum to pick up our 2012 football and volleyball schedule posters. Soccer will be in soon as well.

CONGRATULATIONS

We have truly outstanding student-athletes at TCU, and it’s great to see them be recognized. Freshman men’s golfer Julien Brun, who tied for second at the NCAA Championships, was named a first-team PING All-American, while track and field’s Whitney Gipson was tabbed the South Central Region Field Athlete of the Year.

FROM THE HARD HATS

Great progress continues to be made on all our construction projects. New windows are being installed for the football locker room in the Walsh Complex, while carpet and shelving work is taking place in the equipment room. The new floor for the sports medicine center will begin installation Thursday. Preparation of the east side rest rooms and concession stands is well underway at Amon G. Carter Stadium with equipment now arriving.

COMPLIANCE CORNER

Over the past several years, social media has continued to become more and more popular and prevalent in our daily lives. While the NCAA rules do not specifically address Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or any other social media technology by name, there are regulations currently in place which do govern the actions of not only a member institution’s coaching staff, but also the actions of their boosters.

Coaches and institutional staff members are permitted to “friend" or “follow” a prospective student-athlete via social media in certain instances, and they may also communicate with prospects using the private messaging functions so long as this is done in accordance with the rules that permit an institution to send general correspondence to a prospect via other forms of communication (e.g. regular mail or fax). Additionally, communicating with a prospect publicly on his or her wall, commenting on a post or “liking” a post remains impermissible until the prospect has signed a National Letter of Intent or an institution’s written offer of admission and/or financial aid.

There are also NCAA regulations that govern boosters and their use of social networking websites when it comes to prospective student-athletes. It is NEVER permissible for a booster to initiate contact with a prospective student-athlete via the “friend” or “follow” functions on social media websites. Additionally, it is not permissible for a booster to post a comment on a prospective student-athlete’s Twitter or Facebook page until he or she is no longer a prospective student-athlete. It has always been impermissible for boosters to engage in any contact or type of correspondence or communication with prospective student-athletes until they either officially report to campus for pre-season practice or until they enroll and attend classes at the particular institution (the sports of cross country, football, soccer and volleyball report to campus for pre-season practice prior to the start of classes for the fall semester). Once either of those events takes place, the prospective student-athlete is no longer a prospect, he or she then becomes a student-athlete.

The world of social media is ever-changing and extremely difficult to monitor so we ask for the supporters of TCU Athletics to remain vigilant and report any potential violations of these regulations to the Compliance office. We invite your questions, concerns and comments regarding the NCAA rules and regulations, as they can be complex and confusing at times. As always, ASK BEFORE YOU ACT!

KEEP IN TOUCH

Please let us know if you ever have any questions or concerns regarding our program. This is also your program and we value your feedback. We welcome all calls and emails.